Chris Bryant disputes Rebekah Brooks's account of offensive comment

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/11/chris-bryant-rebekah-brooks-comment

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The Labour MP Chris Bryant has disputed Rebekah Brooks's version of events, after the ex-News International chief executive told the Leveson inquiry she could not remember making an apparently offensive comment to the politician in 2004.

Bryant said he was "absolutely certain" Brooks had made a snide remark about his sexuality in retaliation for the MP's outspoken criticism of Rupert Murdoch at the Labour party conference that year.

Brooks was asked by the Leveson inquiry counsel, Robert Jay QC, on Friday whether she could recall saying to Bryant: "Ah, Mr Bryant. It's dark, isn't it? Shouldn't you be out on Clapham Common by now?"

Brooks said she knew which anecdote Jay was referring to, but added: "I don't remember saying that, no".

She was alleged to have made the remark at a News International drinks reception at the Labour party conference, where Bryant had said at a fringe meeting that Murdoch should not be allowed a monopoly of media ownership in the UK. At the time she was editor of the Sun.

Bryant told the Guardian after Brooks's evidence: "There are some things you are fairly sure about and some things you are absolutely certain about. This is something I am absolutely certain about."

He added: "Kevin Maguire [the Daily Mirror political editor] wrote about it at the time. Andrew Pierce [the Daily Mail columnist] wrote about it. We commiserated about this all night."

Brooks was asked by Jay whether she could remember what her then husband, the actor Ross Kemp, said to her after her alleged comment. Bryant claims that Kemp told Brooks: "Shut up, you homophobic cow".

Brooks said on Friday: "I remember what Mr Bryant said my then husband said. I don't think he said that."

Bryant maintained that he was "absolutely certain" Kemp had said this because "apart from anything else, I wrote it down".

The Labour MP for Rhondda, a prominent critic of News International over the phone-hacking affair, of which he is a victim, said he had recounted his version of events in a witness statement to the Leveson inquiry. The statement has not yet been made public.